Teardowns Explore Bluetooth, Cellular IoT

TechInsights explored some of the Bluetooth and cellular IoT devices that it expects will dominate the Internet of Things for some time.

Bluetooth 5.0 SoCs will be rapidly adopted by consumer IoT devices such as smartwatches and health and fitness products. Two emerging cellular IoT standards—narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and Enhanced Machine-type Communications (eMTC)--will see wide applications in smart meters, bikes and other new emerging applications with help from mobile carriers.

IoT devices contain some of the most advanced silicon die seen today. Like the IoT itself the underlying technology is evolving at a rapid pace.

Based on analysis of dozens of IoT devices across industries, it is clear that Bluetooth will continue to be one of the main technologies used in SoCs. The latest version, Bluetooth 5.0, is quickly displacing earlier versions. Bluetooth 5.0, released in 2016, quadruples the range, doubles the speed and increases the data broadcasting capacity of SoCs.

The Dialog Semiconductor DA14580, Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 and STMicroelectronics BlueENG are among the SoCs that analysis has shown are used in many products. Typically, these IoT SoCs include an integrated CPU core, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC), memory and a radio transceiver in a single die.

Next page: Inside Dialog's Bluetooth SoC

Three popular Bluetooth SoC compared. Click to enlarge. (All tables and images: TechInsights)